Thread: Man hour rating (Job Costing)

after running some of your job costing reports where does your man hour rating come in at? This report is after doing work at a customers house less labor and less material. Im right around the $60.00 per man per hour mark. I know everyone has different overhead and what they have to make but just seeing where i come in

So your employee is costing you 60/hr? If i read that correctly then you are extremely high. My employed cost me 14.70 after hourly rate plus payroll and what not. I charge around 50 per man hour depending on the job when I'm not on sitePosted via Mobile Device

It seems that everybody is trying to wrap everything into their labor rate thus coming up at 60 per man hr, from what I can figure most labor rates should come in at around 40-50 per man hr depending on pay rates and such, 35-40 being a start up with little overhead and 40-50 being an established company. Of course their are all kind of variables but these seem to be a general guideline. I can tell you these guys touting 60+ per man hr must not need much new work cause even the established companies around here aren't getting those kind of rates most are in the 45-50 range.

It's always going to be difficult to compare apples to apples. I work with one landscape business owner who is dominating his area because his expenses in general are so low - no facility rent, vehicles and equipment paid for, low labor rates. When we determined what he needed to charge per man per hour to break even, he was in the $24 per hour range.

The area in which he works in general seems to have most companies charging somewhere in the vicinity of $42 per man per hour.

As you can imagine, he can come in with his bids in the $35 per man per hour range, charge a much lower price, and still make a significant profit.

Sean, you pretty much hit it right on, For some reason these guys are trying to make $30+/hr plus expenses, not realistic imop. Customers aren't stupid, when you qoute 60 per man hr your gonna get laughed at most likely, I had one local LCO tell me he was getting 70 per man hr I just laughed and walked off.

No one can give you this answer. Only you, through breaking down your numbers, can determine what you should be charging per man per hour.

This is a rough example, but follow me here....

Company 1 has 4 employees. They have two trucks that cost the company $500 a month each. All of their equipment is financed and that costs them another $1,000 a month. They rent a garage for $800 a month. They pay all of their employees $15 per hour. They pay an accountant to do their payroll, they spend a lot of money on advertising and in general, the business is unorganized and not very efficient - neither are the employees.

Company 2 also has 4 employees and two trucks and the same equipment, but the trucks are paid for and so is the equipment. They do not rent a garage space and all of their employees are paid $12 per hour. The owner does all of the payroll work and they use the internet and word of mouth to advertise their business, which costs them next to nothing. ON top of that, the company is run well and the employees rarely waste time.

If company 1 and company 2 are going to bid on the same mowing job for example, who do you think can bid less?

Company 2

If company 2 can bid less and provide as good (if not better) service than company 1, who is going to get the job.